TV SPOTS for THIS ONE LOOK ALARMINGLY UNFUNNY...AND WAY TOO MUCH LIKE 2007's WHO'S YOUR CADDY. IN FACT, IT LOOKS LIKE SOMETHING SOMEONE at the RELEASING STUDIO SHOULD HAVE SUGGESTED WAS PERFECT...to GO DIRECT-to-VIDEO.

Not rob a church -- "rob the people in the church." It is totally different in every way...

Response from Head RAZZberry: The promos suggest that the church has collected several thousand dollars for some parish project, and it's that money (perhaps in addition to the church-goers' pocket cash) that the main characters are planning to rip-off. So in a way, we may both be right...

This is The Plot, according to IMDB. Durell (Ice Cube) and LeeJohn (Tracy Morgan) are best friends and bumbling petty criminals. When told they have one week to pay a $17,000 debt or Durell will lose his son, they come up with a desperate scheme to rob their neighborhood church. Instead, they end up spending the night in the presence of the Lord and are forced to deal with much more than they bargained for.

The IMDb also had a list of some movies on the same premise as this one. Here are they are:

Aside from looking "alarmingly unfunny," it appears we're in store for Tom Shadyac-ian "moralizing." After all, the picture is set in a church and about a man trying to avoid losing his son. Apparently, right now it's hip to sell trite morals packaged in lightweight comedy to black Americans, as evidenced by the recent success of Tyler Perry's monotonously lowbrow ventures. And in keeping with that ever-present tradition of Hollywood comedies directed at the black community, we have another film featuring at least one gag about a man dressed as a woman (referring to Tracy Morgan's massage scene in the trailers).

Tracy Morgan looks like he's playing the same type of character that he does on 30 Rock, problem is that even though I like the show, I despise his character on 30 Rock. He's almost as annoying as David Caruso's dramatic pausing on CSI Miami. Hell the only reason Caruso's pausing is more annoying is because he's capable of great work ( King of New York, NYPD Blue, etc.). However, in an effort to say something nice, Morgan's recent superhero commercial did make me chuckle.

Ok, I really hate the ads for this movie. I think the problem was that the trailers make me think that this movie is another "Who's your Caddy" like those other meaningless movies...now, actually reading the reviews, they say it has a heart and some decent laughs. So I'm fairly surprised.

As has been said, every person sees each film a little differently, unlike the people who cut trailers for today's film executives, who are if possible even stupider than their bosses and put essentially the exact same "genre" trailer out each and every time. But if you like it, by all means say so; we do believe in freedom of expression here--exercised properly of course.

I'm fairly surprised that my theater even got this movie, as we tend to get skipped when it comes to movies that are geared specifically towards "urban" audiences.

For instance, we didn't get "Tyler Perry's 'Why Do I keep Making the Same Movie?", and it went on to be a hit, but we never got a single call about it, and no one ever asked why we didn't get it. It's like it never existed. When someone DOES ask me why we're not playing a particular film like that, I just simply say "It won't make money here", to which a typical response might be "But it looks funny", to which I will say "And it might be, but it doesn't matter. Yes, the entire black population of Butler (my town) would come out to see it opening weekend, but after those 20 people, it's going to be playing to an empty theater all week". No one really argues with that.

To get somewhat back on topic, "First Sunday" (which was called "First Friday" by some of the customers I waited on the other night) only had about 30 people in to see it on Saturday, while we had about 300 tickets sold for Bucket List. They both finished with about the same overall box office, and I'm not surprised one bit. Old folks love their Morgan Freeman...

Thing is, the only good Tyler Perry film was Why Did I Get Married? From what I heard, it steared clear of Perry's cartoonish miscalculations and made a somewhat poignant, and observant film.

Aside from that, Perry's still not a great director. He takes
meaningful storylines - ones that have potential to make a charming
movie - and then cram them up with ghastly ideas for entertainment:
cartoonishly evil bad guys (and girls, if you count the bitchy ex-wife
in Daddy's Little Girls and Lynn Whitfield in Madea's Family Reunion),
scatalogical humor (never mix in a crossdressing man in a serious
drama), godawful performances (including those from actors/actresses
who should know better than to boldface and underline their emotions)
and the way it uses Christianity as a crutch, but features such overly
theatrical scenarios straight out of soap operas or crappy urban films
(urban violence, the villains, pussywhipped men proclaiming their love
to women). Believe me when I say that the African-American audience
deserve better (ATL).

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